The Birds

Audio problem: When Annie says, "Did you drive up from San Francisco by the coast road?" her lips are mouthing something different. (00:17:55)

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Audio problem: As Annie says to the students, "All right children now quiet," her lips do not match what she says. This continues before she says, "Miss Daniels" and her lips move and nothing comes out. (01:12:20)

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Audio problem: After Annie tells the students about the fire drill, their lips, especially those of the girl in the front, are not in sync with what they're saying. (01:12:30)

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Audio problem: When Mitch turns on Melanie's car radio he turns the tuner knob and stops on the station that he eventually tunes in, goes a little bit forward and then back again to the same spot. The over-dub is not correct as we would have heard the announcer speaking the first time he landed on the station. (01:53:55)

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Audio problem: As Melanie parks in front of Annie's house the audio of her car engine is not in sync with the film. The engine sound stops before the exhaust stops coming out of her tail pipe and she eventually pops the clutch to stop the engine from running on. (00:16:00)

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Audio problem: Before Melanie starts off across the bay we hear the boat keeper start the boat's engine. But this is only an over-dub, the engine's not really running as there's no turbulence behind the boat like in the next two shots. (00:20:30)

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Audio problem: When the uptight mom asks how to get to San Francisco the guy at the bar that offers to take her lifts his glass up to take a drink and then we hear the overdub of the ice jangling in the glass. The jangling continues into the next shot after the glass is stationary and no longer near his lips. (01:22:10)

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Audio problem: As Mitch points with his left hand towards the beautiful view from the top of his hill, he is saying something to Melanie, that has been edited out. (00:48:20)

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Audio problem: As Melanie walks into the classroom we hear the children singing "Risalty Rosalty" and as they turn around to look at her we still hear the song but none of them are singing. (01:08:55)

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Audio problem: At the end of the movie when they're walking out of the house you hear a door open, but the doorway is empty - it's just an open space, with no door. (01:56:40)

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Audio problem: As the birds sit on the monkey bars outside the school we hear the sound of many birds flapping their wings for several seconds before any take off. (01:13:20)

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Audio problem: When Mitch says to Lydia in the kitchen, "Yeah, I suppose so. Her father's part owner of one of the big newspapers in San Francisco," his lips don't match up with what he's saying and his voice sounds entirely different from his previous sentence. (00:38:10)

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Audio problem: After the gull hits her in the head, Melanie says to Mitch, "Yes, I think so," but her mouth does not go along with what she's saying. (00:25:35)

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Audio problem: They use a different overdubbed tone for the bell on the door of the general store when the manager opens it. Before as Melanie walked into the store we heard the real sound. (00:13:10)

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Audio problem: As Melanie and the manager leave his store to look at the Mitch's house, they overdub the bell sound when he opens it but neglect to when he closes it. (00:13:15)

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Audio problem: After leaving the card by the bird cage Melanie walks on the carpet over to the window to see where Mitch is. She just walked over that spot a minute ago and didn't make a sound, but now they dub in the sound of her walking on a hardwood floor. (00:22:35)

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Audio problem: Talking to Melanie Annie gets up and says, "Afraid I'd give Mitch". This sentence is an obvious over-dub as the natural room echo that we hear in her previous and subsequent sentences disappears. (00:43:55)

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Audio problem: In the restaurant when Mitch says, "We can get Cathy at Annie's now" his lips are out of sync with what he is saying. (01:28:10)

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Audio problem: When we first see Melanie play the piano, the melody line that we hear is not what she's playing with her right hand. (00:35:40)

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Audio problem: In the pet shop the cashier starts moving her mouth before she says anything to Melanie. (00:02:25)

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Continuity mistake: A blond boy in a light brown shirt is attacked by a crow and goes from having no blood on his neck to having a lot of blood smeared on his neck between shots. (01:14:10)

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Trivia: There is no musical score for the movie.

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Question: When the birds attack the town a gas station attendant is hit by a bird and drops the gas hose he is using to fill a car. The gasoline flows down the street and under a car; a man drops a match and lights the gas causing an explosion. Why didn't the gas pump shut off when the man dropped it?

michael g

Answer: The movie takes place in the 1960s, so presumably gas pumps worked a bit differently back then. This is also a small town and probably the gas station had not modernized. There may not have been automatic shut-offs, or if there was, it was faulty.

raywest

The automatic shut off is in the handle of the hose. When a person grips the handle they have to lift a levered switch to allow gas flow; the lever is spring loaded so that if it is released the gas will stop flowing. I have looked at older antique gas pumps and they are all the same; even the visible glass gravity flow ones. If that hose was dropped the the gas should have stopped flowing.

michael g

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